Report on the Alliancepresented in the name of the General Council to the Hague Congress

Written: in French by Engels at the end of August 1872.
Submitted to the Commission Investigating the Alliance;Source:The General Council of the First International. 1871-72, Moscow, 1968;Transcribed: by director@marx.org.

The Alliance of Socialist Democracy was founded
by M. Bakunin towards the end of 1868. It was an international society
claiming to function, at the same time, both within and without the International
Working Men's Association. Composed of members of the Association, who
demanded the right to take part in all meetings of the International's
members, this society, nevertheless, wished to retain the right to organise
its own local groups, national federations and congresses alongside and
in addition to the Congresses of the International. Thus, right from the
onset, the Alliance claimed to form a kind of aristocracy within our Association,
or elite with its own programme and possessing special privileges.

The letters which were exchanged between the Central Committee
of the Alliance and our General Council at that time are reproduced on
pp. 7-9 of the circular Fictitious Splits in the International" "(appendix No. 1). The General Council refused to
admit the Alliance as long as it retained its distinct international
character; it promised to admit the Alliance only on the condition that the
latter would dissolve its special international organisation, that its
sections would become ordinary sections of our Association, and that the
Council should be informed of the sear and numerical strength of each new
section formed.

The following is the reply dated June 22, 1869, to these demands
received from the Central Committee of the Alliance, which has henceforth
become known as the "Geneva Section of the Alliance of Socialist Democracy"
in its relations with the General Council.

"As agreed between your Council and the Central Committee of the Alliance
of Socialist Democracy, we have consulted the various groups of the Alliance
on the question of its dissolution as an organisation outside the International
Working Men's Association.... We are pleased to inform you that a great
majority of the groups share the views of the Central Committee which intends
to announce the dissolution of the International Alliance of Socialist
Democracy. The question of dissolution has today been decided. In
communicating this decision to the various groups of the Alliance, we have
invited them to follow our example and constitute themselves into sections
of the International Working Men's Association, and seek recognition as
such either from you or from the Federal Councils of the Association in
their respective countries. Confirming receipt of your letter addressed
to the former Central Committee of the Alliance, we are sending today for
your perusal the rules of our section, and hereby request your official
recognition of it as a section of the International Working Men's Association...."
(Signed) Acting Secretary, C. Perron (appendix No. 2).

A copy of these rules of the Alliance may be found among appendices No. 3.

The Geneva section proved to be the only one to request admission
to the International. Nothing was heard about other allegedly existing
sections of the Alliance. Nevertheless, in spite of the constant intrigues
of the Alliancists who sought to impose their special programme on the
entire International and gain control of our Association, one was bound
to accept that the Alliance had kept its word and disbanded itself. The
General Council, however, has received fairly clear indications which forced
it to conclude that the Alliance was not even contemplating dissolution
and that, in spite of its solemn undertaking, it existed and was continuing
to function as a secret society, using this underground organisation to
realise its original aim -- the securing of complete control. Its existence,
particularly in Spain, became increasingly apparent as a result of discord
within the Alliance itself, an account of which is given below. For the
moment, suffice it to say that a circular drawn up by members of the old
Spanish Federal Council, who were at the same time members of the Central
Committee of the Alliance in Spain (see Emancipacion No. 61, p.
3, column 2, appendix No. 4), exposed the existence of the Alliance. [Earlier]
the circular, dated June 2, 1872 and published in Emancipacion (No.
59, appendix No. 5), informed all the sections of the Alliance in Spain
that the signatories had dissolved themselves as a section of the Alliance
and invited other sections to follow their example.

The publication of this circular caused the Alliance newspaper,
the Barcelona Federacion (No. 155, August 4, 1872), to publish the
rules of the Alliance (appendix No. 6), thus putting the existence of this
society beyond question.

A comparison of the rules of the secret society with the rules
presented by the Geneva section of the Alliance to the General Council
shows, firstly, that the introductory programme to the first document is
identical to that of the second. There are merely a few changes in wording,
as a result of which Bakunin's special programme is given more succinct
expression in the secret rules.

Below is an exact table of:

Geneva rules

Secret rules

Art. 1

corresponds literally to

Art. 5

Art. 2

corresponds generally to

Art. 1

Art. 3

corresponds literally to

Art. 2

Arts. 4 & 5

correspond generally to

Art. 3

Art. 6

corresponds generally to

Art. 4

The secret rules themselves are based on the Geneva rules. Thus, Article
4 of the secret rules corresponds literally to Article 3 of the Geneva
rules; Articles 8 and 9 in the Geneva rules correspond in abbreviated form
to Article 10 of the secret rules, as do the Geneva Articles 15-20 to Article
3 of the secret rules.

Contrary to the actual practice of the Alliancists, the Geneva
Article 7 advocates the "strong organisation" of the International and
binds all members of the Alliance to "uphold ... the decisions of the Congresses
and the authority of the General Council". This article is not to
be found in the secret rules, but evidence of its original inclusion in
these rules is provided by the fact that it is reproduced almost word for
word in Article 15 of the regulations of the Madrid sección de
oficios varios [section combining various types of professions] (appendix
No. 7) which also includes the programme of the Alliance.

It is, therefore, clear that we are dealing with one and the same
society and not with two separate societies. At the same time as the Geneva
Central Committee was assuring the General Council that the Alliance had
been disbanded, and was admitted as a section of the International on the
basis of this assurance, the ringleaders of this Central Committee led
by Mr. Bakunin were strengthening the organisation of this same Alliance,
turning it into a secret society and preserving that very international
character which they had undertaken to abolish. The good faith of the General
Council and of the whole International, to whom the correspondence had
been submitted, was betrayed in a most disgraceful manner. Having once
committed such a deception, these men were no longer held back by any scruples
from their machinations to subordinate the International, or, if this were
unsuccessful, to disorganise it.

Below we quote the main articles of the secret rules:

"1) The Alliance of Socialist Democracy shall consist of members
of the International Working Men's Association and has as its aim the
propaganda and development of the principles of its programme, and
the study of all means suited to advance direct and immediate emancipation
of the working class.

"2) In order to achieve the best possible results and not to compromise
the development of social organisation, the Alliance shall be entirely
secret.

"4) No person shall be admitted to membership if he has not accepted
beforehand the principles of the programme completely and sincerely.

"5) The Alliance shall do its utmost to exert from within its
influence on the local workers' federation in order to prevent the
latter from embarking on a reactionary or anti-revolutionary course.

"9) Any member may be dismissed from membership of the Alliance
on a majority decision without any reason being given."

Thus, the Alliance is a secret society formed within the International
itself, having a programme of its own differing widely from that of the
International, a society which has as its aim the propaganda of that programme
which it considers to be the only true revolutionary one. The society binds
its members to act in such a way inside the local federation of the International
as to prevent it from embarking on a reactionary or anti-revolutionary
course, i.e., the slightest deviation from the programme of the Alliance.
In other words, the aim of the Alliance is to impose its sectarian programme
on the whole International by means of its secret organisation. This can
be, most effectively achieved by taking over the local and Federal Councils
and the General Council, using the power of a secret organisation to elect
members of the Alliance to these bodies. This was precisely what the Alliance
did in cases where it felt that it had a good chance of success, as we
shall see below.

Clearly no one would wish to hold it against the Alliancists for
propagating their own programme. The International is composed of socialists
of the most various shades of opinion. Its programme is sufficiently broad
to accommodate all of them: the Bakunin sect was admitted on the same conditions
as all the others. The charge levelled against it is precisely its violation
of these conditions.

The secret nature of the Alliance, however, is an entirely different
matter. The International cannot ignore the fact that in many countries,
Poland, France and Ireland among them, secret organisations are a legitimate
means of defence against government persecution. However, at its London
Conference the International stated that it wished to remain completely
dissociated from these societies and would not, consequently, recognise
them as sections. Moreover, and this is the crucial point, we are dealing
here with a secret society created for the purpose of combatting not a
government, but the International itself.

The organisation of a secret society of this kind is a blatant
violation, not only of the contractual obligations to the International,
but also of the letter and spirit of our General Rules. Our Rules know
only one kind of members of the International with equal rights and duties
for all. The Alliance separates them into two castes: the initiated and
the uninitiated, the aristocracy and the plebe, the latter destined to
be led by the first by means of an organisation whose very existence-is
unknown to them. The International demands of its members that they should
acknowledge Truth, Justice and Morality as the basis of their conduct;
the Alliance imposes upon its adepts, as their first duty, mendacity, dissimulation
and imposture, by ordering them to deceive the uninitiated members of the
International as to the existence of the secret organisation and to the
motives and aims of their words and actions. The founders of the Alliance
knew only too well that the vast majority of uninitiated members of the
International would never consciously submit to such an organisation were
they aware of its existence. This is why they made it "completely secret".
For it is essential to emphasise that the secret nature of this Alliance
is not aimed at eluding government vigilance, otherwise it would not have
begun its existence as a public society; this secret nature had as its
sole aim the deception of the uninitiated members of the International,
proof of which is the base way in which the Alliance deceived the General
Council. Thus we are dealing with a genuine conspiracy against the International.
For the first time in the history of the working-class struggle, we stumble
upon a secret conspiracy plotted in the midst of the working class, and
intended to undermine, not the existing exploiting regime, but the very
Association in which that regime finds its fiercest opponent.

Moreover, it would be ludicrous to assert that a society has made
itself secret in order to protect itself from the persecution of existing
governments, when that same society is everywhere advocating the emasculating
doctrine of complete abstention from political action and states in its
programme (Article 3, preamble to the secret rules) that it

"rejects any revolutionary action which does not have as its immediate
and direct aim the triumph of the workers' cause over capital".

How then has this secret society acted within the International?

The reply to this question is already given in part in the private
circular of the General Council entitled "Fictitious Splits, etc.".
But due to the fact that the General Council was not yet at that time aware
of the actual size of the secret organisation, and in view of the many
important events which have taken place subsequently, this reply can be
regarded only as most incomplete.

Let it be said right from the start the activities of the Alliance
fall into two distinct phases. The first is characterised by the assumption
that it would be successful in gaining control of the General Council and
thereby securing supreme direction of our Association. It was at this stage
that the Alliance urged its adherents to uphold the "strong organisation"
of the International and, above all,

"the authority of the General Council and of the Federal Councils
and Central Committees";

and it was at this stage that gentlemen of the Alliance demanded at the
Basle Congress that the General Council be invested with those wide powers
which they later rejected with such horror as being authoritarian.

The Basle Congress destroyed, for the time being at least, the
hopes nourished by the Alliance. Since that time it has carried on the
intrigues referred to in the "Fictitious Splits"; in the Jura district
of Switzerland, in Italy and in Spain it has not ceased to push forward
its special programme in place of that of the International. The London
Conference put an end to this misunderstanding with its resolutions on
working-class policy and sectarian sections. The Alliance immediately went
into action again. The Jura Federation, the stronghold of the Alliance
in Switzerland, issued its Sonvillier circular against the General Council,
in which the strong organisation, the authority of the General Council
and the Basle resolutions, both proposed and voted for by the very people
who were signatories to the circular, were denounced as authoritarian
-- a definition that, apparently, sufficed to condemn them out of hand;
in which mention was made of "war, the open war that has broken out in
our ranks"; in which it was demanded that the International should assume
the form of an organisation adapted, not to the struggle in hand, but to
some vague ideal of a future society, etc. From this point onwards tactics
changed. An order was issued. Wherever the Alliance had its branches, in
Italy and particularly in Spain the authoritarian resolutions of the Basle
Congress and the London Conference, as also the authoritarianism of the
General Council, were subjected to the most violent attacks. Now there
was nothing but talk of the autonomy of sections, free federated groups,
anarchy, etc. This is quite understandable. The influence of the secret
society within the International would naturally increase as the public
organisation of the International weakened. The most serious obstacle in
the path of the Alliance was the General Council, and this was consequently
the body which came in for the most bitter attacks, although, as we shall
see, the Federal Councils also received the same treatment whenever a suitable
opportunity presented itself.

The Jura circular had no effect whatsoever, except in those countries
where the International was more or less influenced by the Alliance, namely,
in Italy and Spain. In the latter the Alliance and the International were
founded simultaneously immediately after the Basle Congress. Even the most
devoted members of the International in Spain were led to believe that
the programme of the Alliance was identical to that of the International,
that this secret organisation existed everywhere and that it was almost
the duty of all to belong to it. This illusion was destroyed by the London
Conference, where the Spanish delegate [Anselmo Lorenzo], himself a member
of the Central Committee of the Alliance in his country, could convince
himself that the contrary was the fact, and also by the Jura circular itself,
whose bitter attacks and lies against the Conference and the General Council
were immediately taken up by all the organs of the Alliance. The first
result of the Jura circular in Spain was the emergence of disagreements
within the Spanish Alliance itself between those who were first and foremost
members of the International and those who would not recognise it, since
it had not come under Alliance control. The struggle, at first carried
on in private, soon flared up in public at meetings of the International.
When the Federal Council which had been elected by the Valencia Conference
(September 1871) demonstrated by its actions that it preferred the International
to the Alliance, a majority of its members was expelled from the local
Madrid Federation, where the Alliance was in control. They were reinstated
by the Saragossa Congress and two of them, Mora and Lorenzo, were re-elected
to the new Federal Council, in spite of the fact that all the members of
the old Council had previously announced that they would not recognise
them as members.

The Saragossa Congress gave rise to fears on the part of the ringleaders
of the Alliance that Spain might slip out of their hands. The Alliance
immediately began a campaign against the authority of the Spanish Federal
Council, similar to that which the Jura circular had directed against the
so-called authoritarian powers of the General Council. A thoroughly democratic
and at the same time coherent form of organisation had been worked out
in Spain by the Barcelona Congress and the Valencia Conference. Thanks
to the activity of the Federal Council elected in Valencia (activity which
was approved by a special vote of the Congress), this organisation achieved
the outstanding successes referred to in the general report. Morago, the
leading light of the Alliance in Spain, declared at Saragossa that the
powers conferred on the Federal Council in the Spanish organisation were
authoritarian, that it was essential to restrict them, and to deprive
the Council of the right to accept or reject new sections and decide whether
their rules were in accordance with the rules of the federation, in short,
to reduce its role to that of a mere correspondence and statistics bureau.
After rejecting Morago's proposals, the Congress resolved to preserve the
existing authoritarian form of organisation (see Extracts from the Papers
of the Second Workers' Congress, etc., pp. 109 and 110, appendix No.
8.188 The evidence given by Citizen Lafargue, a delegate to the Saragossa
Congress, will be of great importance in this Connection).

In order to isolate the new Federal Council from the disagreements,
which had arisen in Madrid, the Congress transferred it to Valencia. However,
the cause of the disagreements, namely, the antagonism, which had begun
to develop between the Alliance and the International, was not of a local
nature. Unaware of the existence of the Alliance, the Congress set up a
new Council composed entirely of members of that society, with the result
that two of them, Mora and Lorenzo, opposed it and Mora refused a seat
on the Council. The General Council's circular "Fictitious Splits",
which was a reply to the Jura circular, obliged all members of the International
to make an open statement of their allegiance either to the International
or to the Alliance. The polemics between Emancipacion on the one
hand and the Alliance newspapers, the Barcelona Federacion and the
Seville Razon, on the other became increasingly virulent. Finally,
on June 2 the members of the former Federal Council -- the editors of Emancipacion
and members of the Spanish Central Committee of the Alliance decided to
address a circular to all the Spanish sections of the Alliance, in which
they announced their dissolution as a section of the secret society and
called on other sections to follow their example. Vengeance followed swiftly.
They were immediately expelled again from the local Madrid Federation in
flagrant violation of the existing regulations. Following this, they reorganised
themselves into a new Madrid Federation and requested recognition from
the Federal Council.

However, in the meantime the Alliancist element in the Council,
strengthened by co-option, had gained complete control, causing Lorenzo
to resign. The request of the New Madrid Federation met with a blank refusal
on the part of the Federal Council, which was already concentrating all
its efforts on ensuring the election of Alliance candidates to the Congress
at The Hague. To this end the Council sent a private circular to local
federations dated July 7, in which, repeating the slanderous remarks of
Federacion concerning the General Council, it proposed that the
Federations should send to the Congress a single delegation from the whole
of Spain elected by a majority vote, the list of those elected to be drawn
up by the Council itself. (Appendices No. 9.) It is obvious to anyone familiar
with the secret society existing within the International in Spain that
such a procedure would have meant the election of Alliance men to attend
the Congress on funds provided by members of the International. As soon
as the General Council, which was not sent a copy of the circular, got
to know of these facts, it addressed a letter dated July 24 to the Spanish
Federal Council, which is attached as an appendix (No. I0). The Federal
Council replied on August 1 to the effect that it would require time in
order to translate our letter which had been written in French, and on
August 3 it addressed an evasive reply to the General Council published
in Federacion (appendix No. 11). In this reply it sided with the
Alliance. On receipt of the letter of August 1, the General Council had
already published the correspondence in Emancipacion.

It must be added that as soon as the secret organisation was discovered
it was claimed that the Alliance had already been dissolved at the Saragossa
Congress. The Central Committee had not, however, been informed to this
effect (appendix No. 4).

The New Madrid Federation denies this, and it should have known.
In general, the claim that the Spanish section of an international society
such as the Alliance could dissolve itself without first consulting the
other national sections is patently absurd.

Immediately after this the Alliance attempted a coup d'état.
Realising that it would not be able to secure itself an artificial majority
at the Hague Congress by means of the same manoeuvres employed at Basle
and La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Alliance took advantage of the Conference held
at Rimini by the self-styled Italian Federation in order to make a public
announcement of the split. The Conference delegates passed a unanimous
resolution (see appendix No. 12). Thus the Congress of the Alliance stood
in opposition to that of the International. However, it was soon realised
that this plan had no chance of success. It was abandoned, and the decision
was taken to go to The Hague, with the very same Italian sections, of which
only one out of twenty-one belongs to our Association, having the
audacity to send their delegates to the Hague Congress which they had already
rejected.

Considering:

1) That the Alliance (the main organ of which is the Central
Committee of the Jura Federation), founded and led by M. Bakunin, is a
society hostile to the International, insofar as it aims at dominating
or disorganising the latter;

2) That as a consequence of the foregoing the International
and the Alliance are incompatible.

The Congress resolves:

1) That M. Bakunin and all the present members of the Alliance of Socialist Democracy be expelled from the International Working Men's
Association and be granted re-admission to it only after a public renunciation
of all connections with this secret society;

2) That the Jura Federation be expelled as such from the
International.